NORTH COAST, Calif. – A Humboldt County woman this week reached a plea agreement that will see her spend up to 10 years in prison for the death of her young son in June.

On Thursday Alexandrea Raven Scott, 23, of Trinidad entered a guilty plea to felony child endangerment and also admitted a special sentencing enhancement alleging that abuse of her 18-month old son, Chergery Teywoh Lew Mays, was a proximate cause of the child's death.

The Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office said Scott accepted what it called a “one-time, take-it-or-leave-it offer” in the case.

The agency said a no contest plea to a felony charge is the same for all purposes as a guilty plea under current state law.

To accept this disposition and avoid a possible murder conviction, Scott also was required to stipulate to an aggravated sentence of 10 years in state prison and to waive all local jail credits, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Scott was arrested in June in Willits following the death of her son, who investigators determined she had left in her vehicle with the windows rolled up for about 10 hours.

He died at Howard Memorial Hospital, where his mother had taken him and where sheriff’s deputies responded to begin the investigation.

Because felony child endangerment – even abuse causing death – has not been characterized by the Legislature as crimes of violence, the District Attorney’s Office said Scott is eligible to earn time credits in prison of up to 50 percent of her overall sentence.

Moreover, it is expected that voter-approved Proposition 57 will further shorten the time the defendant must serve in prison, mandating her release on community supervision after she has served only three years, officials said.

"This was a death that should not have happened; I expect that it has left an unfillable hole in the lives of the child's father, as well as the paternal and maternal sides of the extended families," said Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster, the prosecutor handling the case.

"If nothing else, I hope the stipulated prison time will send a message that those who abuse children should expect to be treated like the serious criminals that they are. In this case, it remains difficult to believe that a parent would leave her child alone for hours on end strapped into a car seat in a closed vehicle – all night into the following afternoon. How is it possible that the child's mother did not safeguard her infant, failed to provide him necessary food and hydration for double digit hours, and allowed him to die a lonely, excruciating death in a hot car while she was literally yards away "partying" in a house with strangers? This sort of abuse is well-deserving of hard time in state prison," said Eyster.

Following the court's acceptance of her change of plea, Scott's matter was referred to the Adult Probation Department for a social study and the preparation of a prison packet.

The information developed by probation travels with the defendant to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to help the prison authorities perform intake, classification, and facility assignment.

The 10-year prison sentence will be formally imposed by Superior Court Judge John Behnke at 9 a.m. Aug. 15 in Department H of the Mendocino County Superior Court in Ukiah.

The law enforcement agency that handled the underlying criminal investigation of the child's death and submitted the crime reports and findings that allowed the DA to pursue the conviction was the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.